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My hands shook as I lowered the gun and my eyes caught sight of the girl as she stumbled towards the wolf and stretched out a hand to it. She seemed sad for a minute and then her eyes flashed in anger towards me.

"How dare you? What the hell is wrong with you?" She shouted. I was taken aback by her assault and stood silent. She continued to verbally attack me.

"What makes you think you have the right to end a creature's life? What did he ever do to you?" She roared. I opened my mouth but didn't know what to say.

"I was just…um…I was just following orders." I stuttered. She literally snarled at me. I tried to defend myself.

"I mean, these things are dangerous. I had to…" It sounded like a lame excuse even to me. She didn't accept it either.

"You killed this animal simply because of what it was. You're the monster not him!" I was taken even more off guard but this time I fought back.

"Hey lady, calm down. I had a job to do and I did it. Get over it." I turned around to leave when a large amount of heat flew past my face. The tree to my right exploded.

"What the hell?"

The girl was angry but I don't understand how that gave her the right, or even the ability, to toss giant fire balls at me.

"Are you with professor Broom?" The girl asked, still sounding quite aggressive.

I nodded slowly and tried to comprehend the fact that this lady was on fire, and not in a figurative way. She was literally engulfed in flames from head to toe.

"You're just like Hellboy." She whispered, her fire dimming to a soft blue. That one phrase made everything click in my head.

"You…you're Liz." The professor's words rang in my ears. "She was an agent here much like yourself, and she had abilities similar to yours."

I glanced at the girl's hands. Yeah, I can see how that might be similar. I let the anger ignite some of my own energy. Only two words came to mind after that. Pay back.

"How do you know my name?" She asked. I barked a cruel laugh as the electricity started to radiate from my finger tips. It felt good. My cold energy versus her heated energy. I wonder who would win.

"Everybody's always talking about you. How could I pass up this opportunity to get the payback I deserve?" I tossed my gun behind me. I needed this to be at least some fun because it was probably the only chance I was ever going to get. The girl took a step back but continued to look like she had control. I knew she didn't and that just encourage the smirk on my lips to grow.

"Then I'll pay you back for what you did to that innocent animal." She said but her voice was not as fierce as it had been.

I began to circle her like a predator stalking its prey. She stood tense but I had never been more relaxed. My foot steps were lazy but precise. I told myself that I knew what I was doing but in reality I was sure my sanity was slipping. I had been walking on glass recently. Dyke and Hellboy were going to be the death of me so why not make one thing right before that happened. A smirk grew more prominent with every minute that she spent glaring at me and I could tell that it irritated her.

"Do you even care about anyone in the BPRD?" I started, causing her to cringe. "I mean you've left so many times. It's just ridiculous. Don't you think by now some of them hate you?" I asked, continuing to circle around her.

"You don't understand…"

"And then there's Hellboy. I mean, he takes it the worst." There was some dark emotion in Liz's eyes at the mention of Demon boy. I couldn't place it exactly but it did remind me a little of him.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you." I came to a halt after walking in a half circle around her. She raised her eyes to meet mine. Anger became ferocity in a blink of an eye. She was beyond pissed off and the heat in the courtyard was an indicator of that.

Without warning and quicker than I could comprehend, she closed the distance between us and threw a punch at me. I didn't even have time to duck and ended up flying back against the nearest tree. I regained myself as quickly as I could. As I tried not to stumble I held the bruise on my face. It was sure to have at least second degree burns. Military and combat instincts kicked in, readying me for the fight that I had hoped for.

I didn't hesitate in retaliation. She pulled her arm out for another punch when I reached out and grabbed her fist before she could land another blow. She tried to hit me with her free hand but I avoided it only to have it unfortunately fly back and slap me across the face. I felt the flesh burn from her elemental power but kept my hold on her hand. I yanked her arm, bringing my knee up to meet her stomach. The air was knocked form her lungs and I released her, letting her stumble around until she found a tree to lean on.

"Had enough?" I asked, wiping some sweat and blood from my face. Everything inside of me prayed that her answer would be 'no'. I wasn't finished with her yet. She didn't disappoint.

She charged forward and I threw the first punch this time. She avoided and I found my back exposed to her. Something hit me hard in the back and the sound of a crack resonated throughout my body. I guessed that it wasn't my spine, seeing as I could still stand, but a sharp pain split through my right shoulder blade. I lied to myself saying that I was fine but that didn't make it hurt any less. I stumbled, almost losing balance but recovered fast enough to block the kick that she tried to land on my face.

"What?" Hellboy roared when I passed on Rai's findings. I sighed and repeated the statement. "Rai has found the wolf and is perusing it towards Okan Boulevard." Hellboy barked a few swear words before giving me his assurance that he was going to give Rai a piece of his mind when he saw her again.

I let the radio die and started to retrace my steps to where Rai and I had parted ways.

She was angry with him; Rai was. The reason was something I wasn't sure of just yet. Her emotions were similar to the emotions Hellboy always displayed whenever Liz was around. I guessed that that meant Rai liked Hellboy, though I couldn't understand why.

I knew about Hellboy's aggressive attack when he took Rai out for ice cream. The whole base knew about it somehow or other. Rai had walked around for two whole depressed hours before someone found her and sent her to her room on the night of the fight. She had been like that for a week now. To add that emotional hurt to what she was going through with Director Dyke around… it was just all the more painful.

I sighed and continued on the road in front of me. Life was just so much more difficult when Hellboy was added to the equation.

I was the superior fighter when it came to actual talent; that much was clear. I had the experience and the control. She had zero control and that's why I wasn't doing as well as I had hoped. Liz had a black eye, a large amount of bruises and scrapes, and definitely a broken nose. (She hit it on my shoulder when she tried to tackle me to the ground, so technically that was her fault.)

The only reason I wasn't fairing that well was because I had been lit on fire at least three times. My jacket had been discarded after the sleeves caught fire and my tank top was singed in more than a few places. She was psychotic. Her fire went everywhere and the courtyard looked like a scene from a horror movie with the way that it had been torched. How had no one inside noticed? The thought went to the back of my mind to be dealt with later.

We were both running out of steam. Liz was losing focus and I was losing energy. Both of those things actually worked towards her favor. The less focus she had the worse the flames became. I couldn't even land a blow without sacrificing a bit of my own skin. I had never prayed for rain as much as I did now; something to put out her flames and enhance the destructive potential of my energy.

"Ready to give up yet?" She asked.

"Oh come on… I'm winning." I tried to laugh but my chest was hurting too badly.

"Why do you hate me so much?" She asked in a rasped voice, catching me off guard. I paused for a moment, staring at her wide eyed and then my eyes narrowed into a dark glare.

"He likes you…" I whispered. Liz seemed to be confused. "Hellboy does. And the thing is, our friendship was ruined because…because I'm not you."

I needed to explain further but it hurt to say it out loud. I wasn't her: why was that such a bad thing? I blinked back frustrated tears. It had been so long since I had something to fight for. I had a home and someone important that I wanted to keep.

Why did he pick her over me?

Liz seemed almost sympathetic about my situation, as if she had read the thoughts in my mind, but it was ruined when we heard a car's schreeching brakes coming from around the front of the building.

"Looks like we have company." Liz said. I nodded.

"Let's finish this." I wasn't sure who said it first but it didn't seem to matter.

She stumbled forward and I used the last bit of my strength to charge towards her as well. My fist was aimed for her face, a quick knockout, but hers was aimed to knock the air out of my lungs. I should have suspected that it would be worse.

My fist hit high, connecting with her face, jaw and nose cracking loudly under the pressure of physical power and electricity.

Her fist was a packed explosive that went off the minute it made contact with my abdomen.

Those large windows in the back side of the building suddenly didn't seem so beautiful. Not when you were being sent through them, landing on the broken glass, or rolling across the ground picking up stray pieces in your skin.

The explosion told us exactly where to look once we were outside the institute. I lengthened my strides and charged ahead of the others. The sight of the institute's courtyard was one of a horror film. The strange, mangled trees were on fire. Light poles around the yard had exploded. One of the large windows in the face of the building had been shattered. And in the middle of it all was a body lying on the ground.

I raced forward and knelt beside the figure. "Rai? Sparky, can you hear me?" I called, lifting the person so I could see their face. It wasn't Rai.

"Liz?" I couldn't believe my eyes as I traced one of the fresh cuts on her face. She winced and opened her eyes slowly.

"Red…" She smiled at me weakly then glanced up at the broken window. I turned around to watch the window as well.

My eyes met a pair of acid green orbs. She rested on her hands and knees, covered in substantial amounts of burns. Glass shards were etched into her face and her hair had obviously been yanked a few times to put it in that kind of mess. None of that seemed quite as painful as the look in her eyes.

The minute Rai saw me the three other windows in the side of the building shattered, spewing glass shards around the courtyard. I covered Liz and I with my hand, losing view of Rai for a moment, and when I looked back Rai was laying unconscious with half her body hanging out the window.

I turned back to Liz and tried to piece together the thoughts in my head.

"Who did this to you two?" I asked in utter dismay. I was angry, viciously angry. Here were two of the most important people to me, burned, battered, and beaten. Liz just stared up at me with her dark eyes.

"We did." She whispered as if that should have been obvious.

I stared down at her, completely frozen. Rai had done this to Liz. I looked back at Rai and then down to Liz. "She hurt you?" I asked. Liz didn't answer. Her head lolled to the side and her breath became quieter as she fell asleep in my arms. I lifted her softly.

"We have men collecting Rai." Clay said as he made his way through the burning rubble. I glared at him. "Don't bother." I growled, pushing past him. He surprised me when he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"She may not be Liz but she's a member of this team. She needs our help so we give it, end of story." It was a rarity for Clay to ever talk back to me. I watched him turn around and join the agents heading for Rai.

"He's right you know." I looked back over my shoulder and found Abe. I ignored his comment and glanced around the courtyard again. The fires were almost out but I wanted to get Liz out of here as soon as possible. I didn't know how bad her injuries were.

"She's fine, Red. Rai is the one in trouble. She bit off more than she could chew with Liz. She's severally burned and beaten." I barked a humorless laugh.

"It's what she deserves. What was she thinking? What did Liz ever do to her?" I glared at the car that was being used to transport Rai back to base. Abe sighed and headed towards another car. I followed behind him and waited for him to say what he wanted to say.

"It's not what Liz did, Red. It's what you did. Rai was angry with you. You're the best friend that she has here and you've put her in second place to Liz since the moment Rai arrived." I rolled my eyes. It wasn't a good reason or a good excuse. When Rai woke up, she was going to pay.

Really tense there. It's not really Liz or Rai's fault yet. I'm not going to make Liz a bad guy so don't worry. This is actually my favorite chapter so far. ;) Alright reviews please! I know you guys can do it.